Want free music? It’s easy: Just use the Internet. The only problem is that it is illegal and new Recording Industry Association of America policies are making colleges and universities more responsible for enforcing laws that prevent students from downloading music.

Normally, when copyright holders find that someone within a school’s network has illegally uploaded or downloaded a file, the copyright holders notify the school, which takes action as it sees fit. At Oberlin, offenders lose their Internet privileges for 30 days and must delete the offending files.

The RIAA has started not only informing schools of copyright infractions, but also asking them to forward pre-litigation notices to the offending computer users that require them to pay a settlement for the stolen property or face a copyright infringement lawsuit.

According to the RIAA, the settlement usually asks students to pay anywhere from $750-3500. The RIAA maintains that this is less than students would have to pay in a legal suit.

The RIAA must depend on the schools to send these notices because they only have users’ IP addresses — the number that identifies each computer in a network — not the names of alleged offenders. Because all of a given school’s IP addresses will fall within the same range of numbers, copyright holders can tell which school’s IP range harbors the offending computer. Only the school knows the students’ names, however.

Acting as a mediator forces the school to open the door for legal action against students, creating a difficult situation for administrators.

 “They’re putting us in an awkward position,” said John Bucher, Oberlin’s director of information and technology. “If we don’t send these letters on, then [the RIAA] can go after the student[s] and sue them for a lot of money. If we do send the letters on, then we’re participating in an area where we don’t think we should have to participate.”

Putting schools in this position may help the RIAA convince colleges to strengthen their policies on illegal file sharing.

“We hope that…our partners in the college community will appreciate the proactive role they can play,” said RIAA President Cary Sherman in a press release. “The more that universities impart the right message to their students and protect the integrity of their computer networks, the less likely [it is that] their students will be caught and sued for copyright theft.”

According to the RIAA, The University of Wisconsin at Madison is the only school that has refused to forward the notices to students.

“These settlement letters are an attempt to short circuit the legal process to rely on universities to be their legal agent,” said Brian Rust, communications manager for the UW Division of Information Technology, in a statement to the UW Badger Herald.

Though Oberlin has received about 30 notifications of illegal uploading and downloading from various copyright holders, the RIAA has not yet asked the school to forward any settlements on to individual computer users. The school will forward any notices it receives to students so that students have the opportunity to take the settlement. 

“The legal council of Oberlin College has recommended to us that we do send the letters to the students,” explained Bucher. “We feel like we’re protecting students by doing that.”

One Oberlin student who was punished for illegal downloading earlier in the year (before the RIAA began issuing settlements) agreed with the College’s decision, saying that receiving the letters would provide the best option for students.

“If the RIAA is going to make people accountable for downloading music illegally, I’d rather do it in the cheapest way,” she explained. The student spoke on condition of anonymity.

No matter how schools react to the new regulations, one thing is certain: Getting new music is no longer an innocent task. As Bucher underscores, “The bottom line is, it’s illegal.”